WWW Wednesday

Hi all, WWW Wednesday is a book list hosted by Taking on a World of Words, it’s simple and fun. I really enjoy participating as it is a post that I can put together quickly while my daughter is napping. All you have to do is answer three questions:

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?What did you recently finish reading?What do you think you’ll read next?

What are you currently reading?

My Life Next Door by Huntley Fitzpatrick

I’m about a third of the way through this book and I’m really enjoying it. Samantha is just a normal girl with a perfectionist mother, who falls in love with the boy next door. So far all the characters in this book seem well fleshed-out and the plot is moving forward at a good pace. So far this is proving to be a great YA novel about navigating first love and discovering who you really are. Fitzpatrick introduces the conflict in the first line: “The Garretts were forbidden from the start.” Star-crossed romance/forbidden love with a relatable heroine and a down-to-earth leading man – yes please!

The Garretts are everything the Reeds are not. Loud, messy, affectionate. And every day from her rooftop perch, Samantha Reed wishes she was one of them . . . until one summer evening, Jase Garrett climbs up next to her and changes everything.

As the two fall fiercely for each other, stumbling through the awkwardness and awesomeness of first love, Jase’s family embraces Samantha – even as she keeps him a secret from her own. Then something unthinkable happens, and the bottom drops out of Samantha’s world. She’s suddenly faced with an impossible decision. Which perfect family will save her? Or is it time she saved herself?

A transporting debut about family, friendship, first romance, and how to be true to one person you love without betraying another

What did you recently finish reading?

A Thousand Nights by E. K. Johnston

I reviewed this book here. A Thousand Nights is a uniquely poetic young adult book, with some beautiful cultural and spiritual elements. It is unconventional in the sense that romance is not a dominate part of the story – I would argue that there really is no romance at all. Instead it is a story about the downtrodden, the nameless fighting back against human greed and corruption as represented by Lo-Melkhiin.

Lo-Melkhiin killed three hundred girls before he came to her village, looking for a wife. When she sees the dust cloud on the horizon, she knows he has arrived. She knows he will want the loveliest girl: her sister. She vows she will not let her be next.

And so she is taken in her sister’s place, and she believes death will soon follow. Lo-Melkhiin’s court is a dangerous palace filled with pretty things: intricate statues with wretched eyes, exquisite threads to weave the most beautiful garments. She sees everything as if for the last time. But the first sun rises and sets, and she is not dead. Night after night, Lo-Melkhiin comes to her and listens to the stories she tells, and day after day she is awoken by the sunrise. Exploring the palace, she begins to unlock years of fear that have tormented and silenced a kingdom. Lo-Melkhiin was not always a cruel ruler. Something went wrong.

Far away, in their village, her sister is mourning. Through her pain, she calls upon the desert winds, conjuring a subtle unseen magic, and something besides death stirs the air.

Back at the palace, the words she speaks to Lo-Melkhiin every night are given a strange life of their own. Little things, at first: a dress from home, a vision of her sister. With each tale she spins, her power grows. Soon she dreams of bigger, more terrible magic: power enough to save a king, if she can put an end to the rule of a monster.

What do you think you will read next?

Secrets of a Charmed Life by Susan Meissner

My book club just voted this one as our next book – I can’t wait to get started!

She stood at a crossroads, half-aware that her choice would send her down a path from which there could be no turning back. But instead of two choices, she saw only one—because it was all she really wanted to see…

Current day, Oxford, England. Young American scholar Kendra Van Zant, eager to pursue her vision of a perfect life, interviews Isabel McFarland just when the elderly woman is ready to give up secrets about the war that she has kept for decades…beginning with who she really is. What Kendra receives from Isabel is both a gift and a burden–one that will test her convictions and her heart.

1940s, England. As Hitler wages an unprecedented war against London’s civilian population, one million children are evacuated to foster homes in the rural countryside. But even as fifteen-year-old Emmy Downtree and her much younger sister Julia find refuge in a charming Cotswold cottage, Emmy’s burning ambition to return to the city and apprentice with a fashion designer pits her against Julia’s profound need for her sister’s presence. Acting at cross purposes just as the Luftwaffe rains down its terrible destruction, the sisters are cruelly separated, and their lives are transformed…

All three of these sound really great! The cover of A Thousand Nights looks familiar but I don’t think I’ve read anything about it before. I just read your review and it sounds amazing, so I’ve added it to my own TBR.

I’ve seen A Thousand Nights around but I think I spotted it first around the time I was reading The Wrath and the Dawn and didn’t fancy reading two re-tellings of 1001 Nights. But it sounds very different to The Wrath, particularly if there’s no romance.

I saw The Wrath and the Dawn around as well and was intrigued. From the reviews I’ve read it sounds like the polar opposite to A Thousand Nights. I think I will definitely read it at some stage, but like you I don’t want to read another 1001 nights retelling so soon.

I get that. I really think you have to be in the right mindset for A Thousand Nights, it has a very unique style – you either love it or you hate it. If I wasn’t into the descriptive imagery I would have hated it (I hope that make sense, I’m quite sleepy).

I have seen a lot of mixed reviews on A Thousand Nights and I’m still not sure whether to read it. I already have a copy and I will probably end up reading it at some point… My Life Next Door sounds like an entertaining read; I’m glad you are enjoying it.

I almost picked up My Life Next Door last year at the Texas Teen Book Festival, but something stopped me. I don’t think I was sold entirely on the storyline. I am glad you are enjoying it – I’ll be looking for your review! Happy reading!